Blog 88: My Elementary School Teachers, Too, Were 'Cute' and 'Fine'

By Vernon M. Herron

     I can relate to the verbal experience of a 9-year-old male student of the Brookside Elementary School in Gaston County, (Gastonia) NC, who was suspended for three days for using the words “cute” and “fine” to describe his teacher; words which were interpreted as sexual harassment.

     A 65-year-old former principal, who worked with the Gaston County School system for more than four decades, and for 15 years as the school principal was forced to be demoted or to retire “within an hour,” over his decision to suspend the “youngster.” He is now appealing to the school board and to the public for reinstatement support. While the third grader has been reinstated with an apology, the “fired” principal has not been rehired (at this time.)

     I had six elementary school teachers who were “cute” and “fine.” I prefer saying that they were “beautiful” people,” as some of them resembled my grandmother. Never-the-less, my calling them “cute” or “fine” would be no justification for my being fired from retirement nor for being unfrocked.

     To confirm my opinion, looking through my scrap book, I found pictures for four of my six elementary teachers. Here they are:
    

    
     Not only were my elementary teachers “cute” but they were “beautiful.” Here is where the 4^th grader and I may vary in opinion a “little bit.” Beauty is skin deep. I say that my teachers were beautiful because they saw ‘potential’ in students. They went the second mile to cultivate the “diamond in the rough.”

     I remembered a fifth grade episode in which the teacher used warm water from a radiator can, to remove dirt caked on a classmate’s face and body, then continued her teaching. That brother is a retired M.D. today. She saw a diamond in the rough. I wonder what would have been my lot had I openly called my teacher “cute.”

     I was privileged to meet two of the most beautiful women in the world; one was Black, the other one was White; both had distinguished inner qualities of purpose, refinement and personalities. They were Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt. Their beauty still radiates within my mind, heart and being today because they touched the intangibles of my soul. They along with my elementary teachers were “cute,” “fine” and “beautiful.”